Preacher of Righteousness, 1886‒1901

2021 ◽  
pp. 48-87
Author(s):  
Benjamin J. Wetzel
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Vice President ◽  
Moral Reform ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
Spanish American War ◽  
Untimely Death ◽  
Service Commission ◽  
Police Commissioner

From 1886 to 1901, Roosevelt became a historian, civil service commissioner, police commissioner, assistant secretary of the Navy, war hero, and vice-president. He was also forced to deal with his brother Elliott’s alcoholism, infidelity, and untimely death. In all these experiences Roosevelt sought to promote what he regarded as “righteousness.” His histories provided analysis of religious controversies while his work in the Civil Service Commission and police department illustrated his commitment to moral reform. His actions in the Spanish-American War won him a popularity that helped make him New York governor in 1898. Reluctantly, he agreed to run for vice-president in 1900. While Roosevelt did not recover much personal piety in these years, he gained a reputation as a moralistic preacher of righteousness.

The Campaign for Realism in the New York Periodical Press

2019 ◽  
pp. 285-301
Author(s):  
Mark J. Noonan
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Spanish American ◽  
Periodical Press ◽  
Spanish American War ◽  
Massive Growth ◽  
Realism In Literature

This chapter demonstrates that the fight for greater realism in literature and life was long-lasting and transpired not on a single front but across many battlefields involving a wide variety of actors. Often, war itself was the impetus, first in the rewriting of the “facts” and significance of the Civil War and later as a means of response to the masculine bluster and bloodlust wrought by the Spanish-American War. The gender and class wars of the 1880s and 1890s were also relevant to this embattled genre, as were the effects of industrialization and immigration, which led to the massive growth of New York at this time, where so many of the newspapers and magazines promoting the various strands of realism were based. New York, war, and social issues were all entangled in the emergence of this genre, as numerous New York authors and artists sought to make sense of modern America and mold it to their own visions.

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